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The aim of this study is to explore equality and inclusion as an aspect of remote teaching in rural areas. Moreover, the aim is to explore teachers' pedagogical digital competence (PDC) and school organizational support as conditions for developing remote teaching.

A mixed method approach with both qualitative and quantitative data was used.

According to this study, remote teaching can solve many problems for school organizations and offer pupils new opportunities to learn in rural areas. Remote teaching expands the learning environment and provides pupils with equal access to qualified teachers and a wider range of learning solutions for different needs. However, the learning context needs to be redesigned with flexibility to meet the needs of individual pupils, whereas the remote teaching format itself can contribute to difficulties in teachers' flexibility. In meeting these challenges teachers' PDC and digital relational competencies are becoming increasingly important. Moreover, teachers' access to communities and school contexts where remote teaching is collaboratively discussed and elaborated on.

The study is limited to a region in Sweden, with ten participants.

The practical implications are that equal and inclusive remote teaching is dependent on technological as well as pedagogical competence from teachers as well as from organizations.

If sufficient professional development for teachers is provided as well as organizational structure are in place, remote teaching is an option for equal access to education in sparsely populated areas. This means inclusive education can be provided to areas otherwise lacking in teacher competence.

The study is one of few that investigates how remote teaching teachers perceive the teaching form and the competencies and support required to develop and use it in rural areas.

Digitalization has permeated society and schools. In this process, focus has turned to the importance of school leaders in their leadership for digitalization. The purpose of this paper is to explore how school leaders understand digitalization and the digital competencies needed in leading for digitalization in Swedish schools.

Open questions from reflective learning journals (n=32) and interviews (n=8) conducted with school leaders were used to explore how school leaders understand digitalization and the digital competencies needed in leading for digitalization.

The findings show that school leaders see digitalization as a wide and complex concept including technical, pedagogical, administrational and organizational challenges at all levels of the school organization.

It appears that the role of the school leader, as a complex task, has become more complex as a result of digitalization. How time, resources and professional development are made available to support school leaders in their work with leadership for digitalization in order to support teachers’ and students’ learning.

This paper contributes to the area of school leadership and digitalization. The research contribution is of interest for school leaders and school organizers striving to implement and advance digitalization in schools. This also concerns the prioritization of digitalization as one of many important areas in schools as organizations.